The airline denies that it has made a change to its free seat allocation policy

By Tara Evans, Digital Consumer Editor

28th June 2017,3:08 pm

Updated: 29th June 2017,1:29 pm

FURIOUS Ryanair passengers have accused the low-cost airline of changing its seating policy so that travellers from the same booking are split up.

In one of the most extreme circumstances a hen party was seated in 15 separate rows, despite checking in four days before their flight.

PA:Press Association

The airline denies making any change to its seating policy

The budget airline has, so far, denied that there has been any change to its rules.

The group of 15 women flew from Birmingham airport to Ibiza last Thursday and were furious to find that they’d been assigned seats spanning most the length of the aircraft.

Friends Steph Vickers and Faye Cutler, who are celebrating their joint hen-do, told MoneySavingExpert.com that they had booked the group’s tickets back in October, with each return flight costing £220.

Steph, 32, from Birmingham, said: “They’ve put every single person in a middle seat in different rows… I never ever pay to sit next to people, I just look as soon as check-in opens… I couldn’t believe it.

“I just thought it was really disgusting how much they expect you to pay, on top of what you’ve already paid, just to sit next to somebody. It’s unacceptable really.”

Passengers have been able to pay from £2 to pick a seat on Ryanair flights since February 2014.

Adults travelling with children are required to buy one allocated seat for £4 and then they can pick seats for up to four children on the same booking.

MEATY OFFER

BANGER RECALL

TAXING TIMES

You might be paying too much council tax – here's how to find out your band

CLOSING TIME

Carpetright and Mothercare shares plummet as fears about their future grow

SOUND AS A POUND

Why today could be the best time to get your holiday money

Hundreds of Ryanair passengers have continued to complain on Twitter, since The Sun Online first reported on the issue last month.

Dedicated Ryanair fan and passenger, Myles Harrington, who lives in North London and works in TV, was travelling to Ireland from London Stanstead earlier month, when he was split up from his girlfriend.

The 30-year-old has flown with the Irish airline more than 40 times over the last 10 years.

Great stuff from @Ryanair “random" seating. Me in 5D, girlfriend in 31D, both with an empty seat next to us.

Despite this, Ryanair claims that there has been “no change” to its policy.

A spokesman from the airline said: “When a customer does not purchase a seat, they are then randomly allocated a seat, which has always been our policy.”

“Given we have a 95 per cent load factor and we are carrying more customers – our May traffic alone rose by 11 per cent from 10.6m to 11.8m customers for example – there are now less seats to allocate randomly.”

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Money team? Email us at money@the-sun.co.ukor call 0207 78 24516